The Slime Doesn't Die from Mana Transfer

Chapter 94 : The Demon King’s Diary

The flying men spectacle in Flemont lasted three days and three nights.

At first, some had tried to hold out, but in the end, cruel reality forced them to follow the same path as the rest.

Adventurers became bloodthirsty spectators. They no longer cared who had cleared the 【Undead Fortress】. Yet every day, they praised the nameless adventurer who had done it.

As for the nobles of surrounding towns—they merely watched coldly. Whatever sympathy they might once have had for the merchants had long since vanished.

If you gamble, you must accept loss—that is the basic principle of commerce.

The more one tried to take shortcuts, the harder one would fall.

Or in simpler terms, they got what they deserved.

To most adventurers, the spectacle was nothing more than another form of entertainment.

Once the 【Undead Fortress】 had been conquered, adventurers who had come for it began leaving en masse. Only a few chose to stay and observe for a while longer.

The hoarded supplies lost all value. Merchants slashed prices to cut their losses, selling at rates cheaper than before.

Adventurers’ daily lives suddenly became much more comfortable.

So Rozelite, who had originally planned to leave Flemont quickly because of the high costs, no longer felt any urgency to go.

…

Three days after the labyrinth conquest.

Rozelite lay in the inn, recovering.

Now that they had money, even healing potions could be used freely. Though Rozelite insisted she could still move without issue, Russell forced her to stay in bed, both to recuperate and to calm down a little.

Because lately, she had been acting stranger and stranger.

She even kept pestering Russell about a promised “reward.”

If it were something normal, that would be one thing.

But no—she’d said she wanted to be swallowed into the slime’s body and tightly enveloped. She’d even asked him to eat the slices of flesh cut from her arm.

Definitely not normal.

To prevent her from drifting further into madness, Russell decided to make her rest properly for a few days.

Drinking tea, eating sweets, living idly—like a proper princess.

Meanwhile, her severed arm, cut down further, was kept in the icebox. Theoretically, it shouldn’t rot, but Russell still preferred taking precautions. At least it felt better that way.

Rozelite lay on the bed, idly wiggling her toes.

At the table beside her, Russell propped an eyeball-tipped tentacle on the book they had brought from the labyrinth, reading carefully.

He didn’t particularly like this kind of worldbuilding lore dump, but he’d realized something.

This world was too complicated. Heroes, Demon Kings, Sword Saints, subspace—so many messy elements. If he didn’t brush up on the setting, he might one day accidentally kill his own teammate.

So, to prevent some absurdly cliché tragedy, Russell forced himself to read what the black silhouette had left behind.

The diary entries began mundane:

“XX Day, heavy snow. My daughter wanted to eat Lofin fruit, but this year’s harvest failed. Couldn’t buy any. Managed to talk my way out of it.”

“XX Day, heavy snow. Found a dead rat in the kitchen. Damn it, I’ll have to kill all the damn vermin.”

“XX Day, overcast, no snow. Some idiot border tribes raided southern granaries again. I’ll have to wipe them out one day.”

“XX Day, heavy snow. Avalanche on East Mountain. Dozens dead. Asked Treasury for relief funds—federal officials said it wasn’t their problem, and that I was too soft-hearted to be a Demon King. No choice but to pay out of pocket. Someday, I’ll kill all those useless bastards.”

“XX Day, heavy snow, storm. The relief grain I distributed got stolen. Sent men to confiscate their property—those idiots resisted. Killed them all.”

“XX Day, sunny. Took a walk in town, ran into a racist protest. Killed the leader, jailed the rest. Damn it, still have to use force—no one respects me as Demon King otherwise. How is the federal government supposed to function like this?”

“XX Day, heavy snow. The Rhine Kingdom declared war again. Are they insane? They’ve got plenty of neighbors, yet they come after my barren lands? Can’t understand it. Once war breaks out, I’ll lob a couple of mana cannons at the front lines—see if they learn their lesson.”

Russell rubbed his head.

So this was what he had meant by “recorded everything that happened.” He had expected some kind of valuable grimoire. Instead—a literal diary.

So their reward for clearing the labyrinth… was a diary?

Russell wondered if it was even worth finishing.

But with nothing else to do, he pressed on.

At a certain point, the entries grew sharper.

“XX Day. A cult worshiping an alien god appeared in the west. Expanding fast. Had to deal with it. Army was already fighting southerners, so I had no choice but to send the royal guard.”

“XX Day. Royal guard suffered heavy losses against the cult. This is no ordinary cult. Must strike harder.”

“XX Day. Cult crushed, but leader escaped. He hides well. When I catch him, he’ll learn what ‘Nightmare’s Embrace’ means.”

“XX Day. Another Hero appeared in the south.”

“Every time war begins, countless glory-seekers rush in, calling themselves Heroes. Like bugs—you can never squash them all. But among them, some are genuine.”

“They created a so-called 【Hero System】, modeled after the 【Demon King System】. An ultimate weapon surpassing human limits. On top of that, this Hero wields Sevenstar’s holy sword.”

“I saw with my own eyes as she swept away hundreds of coalition troops with a single stroke. Even the greatest warriors of every race couldn’t last a round against her.”

“I am no match for her. The tribal leaders met and voted to strip me of command.”

“The Federation is finished.”

“XX Day. The escaped cult leader approached me. Said he could make our army fight like one against a hundred.”

“I planned to kill him. But at this point—how much worse could things get? I agreed to his plan.”

“The ritual succeeded. The Federal army now fights like one against a hundred. Unstoppable. Even with mortal wounds, they keep fighting.”

“The Federation repelled the kingdom’s offensive. We decided to counterattack.”

“The balance of victory tipped toward the Federation. Even so, the Rhine Kingdom refused to surrender. Because that Hero with the holy sword was still on the front lines, invincible, unmatched.”

“Thanks to her, the Federation army could never cross the Muscovy Mountain Range.”

“So I asked the cult leader to use the ritual on me—to grant me power equal to the Hero’s. That way, I could fight her directly, hold her back, and buy the Federation army time.”

“The way he smiled was disgusting.”